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| Images shared on social networks by Oreo and Twinings in the wake of the royal prince's birth. |
Oreo and Twining's choice of bottle over breast wasn't done out of innocence. It was done because it was easy. It's easy to show bottles. It's HARD to show breasts when they're being used to feed babies.
Oreo dipped its toe in the water last spring with an ad that went viral and prompted enough of a backlash for parent company Kraft to insist the ad was never intended to go public. Facebook banned it. Many mainstream television stations and lots of websites censored it. (See Facebook Harasses women for breastfeeding photos updates, scroll to April 20.)
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| This Oreo ad went viral in the spring of 2012. See this cheeky version from Unlatched's Rachelle Lesteshen |
I was once personally involved in an ad campaign selling telephones to small business owners. One of the commercials portrayed a breastfeeding businesswoman glancing at a ringing phone's call display, and routing the call to a tailored voice mail message. It was a great ad by my creative director husband and it reflected our personal reality as I was running my business from home while breastfeeding our brand new baby.
Alas, the telco shied away from the breastfeeding part and instead the actress was shown bottle feeding the baby.
Images of bottle feeding are easy. Breastfeeding images are hard. They're controversial, they distract from the message, they attract the attention of censors, and (and this is not a small issue) they're harder to stage - you need an lactating actress and a baby who will latch on cue.
This is the reality for producers, for advertisers, for brand managers, for newspaper editors and for censors, both on social networks like Facebook, and on US mainstream television (CBS was fined $550,000 for allowing Janet Jackson's nipple slip to be aired during the Superbowl in 2004 and it took until 2011 for an appeals court to toss out the fine.)
It's also a reality for public health educators who struggle to convince women to breastfeed in an era when it doesn't seem as if anyone around them is breastfeeding. The entire fashion industry is based on the premise that people will follow the prevailing trend in dress. Human beings are social creatures and social creatures are wired to behave the way they see those behaving around them. If mothers don't see breastfeeding, they will not breastfeed. It's that simple.
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| Pink and Willow breastfeeding in public. |
Singer Pink has shared some amazing breastfeeding images, and even her husband is in on it, recently tweeting a pic of his daughter Willow breastfeeding while the three were out at restaurant.
We need more of this.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if Kate addressed this issue by taking control of her own breast imagery and arranging for herself to be photographed breastfeeding the new prince? It could change the world we see around us.
Update, July 25, 12 p.m. MDT: Twinings Tea removes royal baby bottle image
Thanks, Jodine. For all the hoopla, the breast is invisible in breastfeeding while the bottle is bandied about, even -- and especially -- when not in use. I would love to see Kate smile a moment on camera, prince at the breast. One snap of Kate public endorsing breastfeeding would banish thousands of bottle images and do so much to elevate the importance of breastfeeding every mother's baby.
ReplyDeleteMy 5 yr old saw the picture of the baby with cookie and said, "What's that? A cookie?". He completely ignored the breast. A fine example of how normalizing breastfeeding will warp children's minds. They want the cookie!
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post Jodine. I would love to see Kate breastfeed and/or talk about it.
ReplyDeleteIt's so important that we see these images as well when we are being bombarded with images of bottle feeding as the norm.
Women are really just sheep who will do whatever everyone around them is doing? Really? Huh. I thought we were intelligent people who could think for themselves.
ReplyDeleteBottle-feeding moms are rare around me. Most breastfeed. I nursed four of mine and bottle-fed two (after the third week). Those two were twins. I had my intelligent, well-considered reasons for that choice, and I'm glad it's not as bad a choice as some make it out to be, because it was necessary. My mother nursed during the late 50s and early 60s when it really *was* unusual to nurse.
I find the Oreo ad with the cookie dang annoying, because hello, the juxtaposition of the healthiest choice a woman can make for her baby and an Oreo cookie in the baby's hand? Gads. Please, no one should use breastfeeding to sell crap food.
Kind of random thoughts, but they passed through my mind while reading. I'm an American. Maybe that makes a difference, though I've plenty of American acquaintances who see the world as a huge anti-breastfeeding war zone too. I just never have, despite nursing four babies in malls, churches, schools and parks in a mildly discreet manner in plain sight.
Queen Victoria thought breastfeeding was disgusting, but she was rather strange and "was not amused". She would have had wet nurses though back then, so the royal babies (and she had 8 or 9 children) would be started with the right nutrition. I hope Kate continues with breastfeeding for as long as her busy life will allow and dear little Gorgeous George will get the best start in life.
ReplyDeleteWhen Beyonce was photographed breastfeeding little Blue Ivy, the urban website Mediatakeout.com's portrayal of the event was much like pre pubescent boys running about on the playground, snapping young developing girls' bra straps and giggling nervously. It is sad when the media get in on this bandwagon of foolishness that seeks to portray breastfeeding as something alien and to be ridiculed. I gained a new respect for her for breastfeeding her baby and any celebrity for doing so and for being courageous enough to do it in the public eye for the sake of showing its normalcy. Wendy Williams' foolish commentary, aimed at Alicia Silverstone for setting up a breastmilk banking exchange has so far been the most foolish, stating there is something wront with society because "wet nursing" went out with the Civil War in the United States. For a woman to offer her milk to a mother who cannot breastfeed is an extraordianary act of love and sacrifice. I won't bother to get into the subject of wet nursing, it is a bit too long. But it is one of the reasons why the disparity in nursing among African American women because of the fact that during slavery black women nursed their masters' children. We need to keep breastfeeding in the public eye to return to normalcy something that was done since the beginning of time. As long as women see the bottle as the image of how to feed ones baby, they will believe that it is best. I became a lactation educator because though I didn't have the support from my family with my own children, I breastfed them because I knew it was the right thing to do and I wanted my children to have the best and nothing, not ignorance, lack of support, lack of education was going to stop me. Every woman is not that strong or resolute so we must educate with compassion. Thanks for all you do in the furtherance of this vital work. - Sherri L. Hargrove-Johns thecatmama2@yahoo.com
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